With public university fees rising annually, students are starting to feel the heat from miscellaneous charges being piled on to their bills every year.
According to a New York Times article published on September 4, 2007, it is school fees, not tuition, that have risen over the past few years. When legislature turns down attempts to raise tuition, the schools themselves inflate fees for unrecognizable costs like the "comprehensive student fee" or the "University fee."
The University of Oregon may be one of the most deceitful schools, with their "incidental fee" of $624. There was a time when fee titles made it clear what the money was actually being used for. Now, with words like "incidental" slipping into the administrative vocabulary, students don't know what their cash is being spent on.
SUNY university centers all charge in excess of $1,000 for miscellaneous fees, with UB coming in on top, charging over $1,800, they all pale in comparison to the University of Massachusetts Amherst's fee charge - of over $8,000.
It's the administrators who should be feeling the heat, from students who are paying their salaries. The students of California had the right idea, and sued their State University system for some of their fee money back. If the money isn't being used properly, then it may be a good idea to obstruct some of the more dishonest ways for schools to make money.
In the eyes of some, unethical spending has already begun. At the University at Albany, students are now required to pay an Intercollegiate Athletics Fee to pay for "team transportation, uniforms, etc."
We are fortunate to be paying as little in fees as we are, when compared to fee-gluttons such as the University of Massachusetts Amherst. But how do we know when enough is enough?
Photo: Courtesy of SUNY
